Cancer Flashcards
Cancer in children has more of a _____ component compared to cancer in adults
Genetic
Most individuals that die from cancer die from metastases, not the localized tumor, except for _____
- Brain cancer
- Blocking a duct
What is the difference between a carcinoma and a sarcoma?
- Carcinoma - epithelial in origin
- Sarcoma - connective tissue or non-epithelial cell origin
Leukemias refer to cancers of _____
circulating cells
What is the difference between Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?
- Hodgkin’s - B-cell origin (Reed-Sternberg cells)
- Non-Hodgkin’s - B and T-cell origin
Multiple myeloma refers to _______
excess plasma cells in the blood and bone marrow
What are the 10 hallmarks of cancer? (SAGITTAL D’S)
- Self-sufficiency in growth signals
- Apoptosis evasion
- Genome instability/mutation
- Insensitivity to antigrowth signals
- Tissue invasion and metastasis
- Tumor-promoting inflammation
- Avoiding immune destruction
- Limitless replicative potential
- Deregulating cellular energetics
- Sustained angiogenesis
What are proto-oncogenes?
Genes that when mutated or misexpressed can contribute to malignant transformation
Loss of function or expression of _____ genes contributes to malignant transformation.
Tumor suppressor genes
Cancers in adults are most commonly caused by _______
- Environmental agents
- Lifestyle factors
The immunosurveillance theory postulates that _____
immune destruction of cancer cells is common, and cancer results from an occasional failure of the immune system to destroy the aberrant cells
True or false. Tumors can be transplanted into mice with identical MHC types, while failing to grow in mice with different MHC type.
True
What are some examples of tumor-specific antigens?
- Viral proteins
- Mutated portions of cellular proteins
- Protein portions generated from recombination between genes
- Abnormal protein modification patterns
- Peptide splicing
What is the difference between tumor-specific and tumor-associated antigens?
- Tumor-specific: present ONLY on tumor cells
- Tumor-associated: expressed on both normal and tumor cells, usually less on normal
Tumor-specific and tumor-associated antigens are presented to cell surfaces by ____
MHC I
True or false. Increased number of T-regs in a tumor leads to a better prognosis.
False. More T-regs, worse prognosis
True or false. Increased number of T-cells, T-FH cells, memory T-cells, and B-cells lead to a better prognosis.
True
What genes from human papillomavirus (HPV) inactivate tumor suppressors pRB and p53?
E6 and E7
The HPV vaccine is a recombanant vaccine targeted against what viral antigen?
L1 - major capsid protein
What is the role of MIC in regards to cancer evading the immune system?
- Tumor cells initially have increased expression of MIC
- Cells the have decreased MIC are less likely to be destroyed
- Eventually left with cells w/o MIC, which can evade the immune system
Loss of HLA 1 in cancer cells leads to ____
failure to present antigen to cytotoxic CD8 T-cells
What is the normal function of CTLA4?
- Autoimmune regulator
- Competes with CD28 for B7 to inhibit T-cell activation
What is the drug ipilimumab used for?
- Anti-CTLA4 antibody
- Prevents inhibition of T-cells
- Used to treat melanoma
True or false. Tumor cells express decreased levels of B7.
False. They express increased levels of B7
